This will be where I will deposit my thoughts (for the ePlaya crowd anyways), particularly in regards to the theme camp I was with (Trance Villages "InterDimensional Space Port{al}") and the installation I brought to BM '03.

Just a short description of the early days for us, getting this installation and theme camp going....

Way back when (I've been working on this particular installation design for a little over three years since conception and have been working on multi-media installation art for over 12 years), when I first wanted to make a sizable version of the model I had created, I knew a few things:

1) I wanted to do this at BM
3) This would be a community project as it was so big.
2) I wanted it to be a part of a trance theme camp/installation/party scene. And for several reasons. The trance community (at that time the facet of the trance communitty that inspired and made possible this vision was the CCC. In that tradition, the CCC also helped, in its particular way, to make funding for LSA at BM 2003 possible.) was directly connected with the initial vision for this project. It was in this community that I saw the seed shape that inspired my vision. It was this community that most appreciated this form. It was this community that, I felt, would help me build this.
3) I knew this would require a massive amount of energy investment (time, money, focused commitment) and that I needed to consider if I really wanted to do this. Up to this point I had never designed & built any wooden structure much bigger than a rabbit hutch (the final size for LSA was a bit over 36 feet (12 meters) tall,). Could I, would I, do this?

After about 6 months of consideration and being inspired by the art I had seen at BM 2001 (after nearly not going due to funds), I made a firm comitment to myself to build this form.

The painted image that inspired my original sculpture/model was called a Merkaba by the folks that knew of this image.

As a refrence point, I created a story called The Merkaba Project, whose theme/plot dealt with a creative impulse trying to manifest Merkaba forms in this particular here and now reality. It was not until 2003 when working with Monica Senter on the art grant proposal for BM '03 that the name, Lilas Strange Attractor came about for the particular version I was developing for BM '03. LSA is one aspect of The Merkaba Project.

The intial design (:::PHASE ONE:::) was concieved to be constructed from factory produced, 12 inch aluminum box truss. Based on this I recieved a bid from Rocket Science in San Francisco (a Union shop) to build the needed custom fabricated couplers (13) out of aluminum tubes.